Georgian street children are ‘used as shields’ in crimes

Street children in Georgia lack access to education and health­care, a new study by UNICEF has found. According to the study, there are places in Georgia known for criminal activ­i­ties that involve children, but untouched by author­i­ties.

The 24 July report by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) titled ‘Children living and working in the streets of Georgia’ claimed that ‘poverty, family dys­func­tion­al­i­ty, violence in families, and parents’ migration’ are leading causes of children in Georgia ending up on the streets.

The study iden­ti­fied four groups of street children: homeless children and youth, unac­com­pa­nied children in the street sleeping at home, street children of mobile street families, and children of homeless families. The study said these children come from diverse ethnic groups, pre­dom­i­nant­ly ethnic Georgians, two groups of Romani speakers, Azer­bai­jani Kurds, children of refugees from Armenia, and people displaced from South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

‘Older children develop separate codes of conduct and internal ties of depen­dence that con­tribute to the per­pet­u­a­tion of street lives over time, and are poten­tial­ly a source of recruit­ment into criminal activity and violence’, the study said. It described the internal organ­i­sa­tion of these children and stated that children stay and move together in groups or clusters in order to protect each other, to find places to spend the night, or cooperate in economic activ­i­ties like petty trading, street begging, and petty crime.

‘Children who work and live on the streets are par­tic­u­lar­ly vul­ner­a­ble to violence from adults, as well as from other street youth’, UNICEF Rep­re­sen­ta­tive in Georgia Laila O. Gad said in a statement.

Catalin Gherman, Deputy Head of Coop­er­a­tion at the EU Del­e­ga­tion to Georgia, said that Georgia had already made some efforts to establish shelters and services, but more work needed to be done.

‘Pro­tect­ing children against all forms of violence and address­ing the most vul­ner­a­ble children’s needs is a priority for the EU, and also a part of the EU–Georgia Asso­ci­a­tion Agreement. We note that the Gov­ern­ment is making progress in this area, but there is still some work to be done’, said Gherman.

The study found that some children who form groups create struc­tures of sub­or­di­na­tion, dividing them­selves into superiors and sub­or­di­nates. It said older children used younger children as ‘shields’, pushing them to commit crimes and hand over profits.

‘Often, this is organised so that criminal activity — like stealing from shops and stalls, breaking into and/or stealing valuables from cars — is carried out by the younger children, with older children keeping guard while the younger children carry the loot. This has to do with the lower age limit in Georgia of 14 years for criminal pros­e­cu­tion; older children use younger children to avoid [it]’, the study said.

It also described a cult-like group known as the Morgue Children, whose territory is in an under­ground area.

‘Former members recounted that children are initiated into the group through rites, both by older youth and adults. Many former members suffer psy­cho­log­i­cal trauma. Former members of this group reported that the territory they occupied was left in peace by state and city author­i­ties’, the study said.

Researchers collected tes­ti­monies from children who recounted that in one of the groups, girls were required to provide sexual favours to older members.

‘Former affil­i­ates of other groups report using part of their income to pay for sexual services. This indicates that trauma from sexual abuse among street-connected children is likely, a point reit­er­at­ed by psy­chol­o­gists inter­viewed for the current study. Other forms of psy­cho­log­i­cal trauma from violence and drug abuse were also reported by children and service personnel’, the study found.

How children end up and remain in streets

The study indicated several factors that pushed new children to street life:

Parents’ poverty and the involve­ment of children in activ­i­ties aimed at assisting parents, effec­tive­ly leading to sit­u­a­tions of child labour.

A parent’s death, impris­on­ment, illness and/or substance abuse, leading to child
aban­don­ment or neglect and a need for the child to provide for themself.

Domestic violence — physical or psy­cho­log­i­cal — leading to a child pre­fer­ring life outside the home.

Strict dis­ci­pline — i.e. cat­e­gor­i­cal lim­i­ta­tions of their social networks and overly strict rules — in reha­bil­i­ta­tion or service insti­tu­tions, foster family care, or closed juvenile schools, leading children and youth to prefer street lives to rules, and to repeated escapes from care insti­tu­tions.

Social­i­sa­tion among children and youth, leading children to (gradually) reduce the time spent in the home and increas­ing­ly spend more time with other street-connected youth.

The study suggested that dif­fer­ences in social assis­tance schemes in Georgia and Azer­bai­jan, and different legal frame­works, led many Azer­bai­jani families to immigrate to Georgia. It suggested that the pro­hi­bi­tion on begging and stricter enforce­ment of sanctions against petty trade in Azer­bai­jan encour­aged them to come to Georgia.

The study also said that internal group struc­tures occa­sion­al­ly put children in debt to each other or to outsiders. ‘Debt can poten­tial­ly tie children to street liveli­hoods in the longer term’, the study said. It suggested that when it comes to reha­bil­i­ta­tion, homeless children and youth often have par­tic­u­lar reha­bil­i­ta­tion needs as a result of longer-term neglect.

‘Also note that the economic indebt­ed­ness of many of these children and youth must be assessed at the start of reha­bil­i­ta­tion. Many will also be creditors, serving as patrons to other children, who owe them money or services. Such ties of debt and depen­dence must be taken into con­sid­er­a­tion at the beginning of reha­bil­i­ta­tion, and obtaining infor­ma­tion about such ties requires the building of trust between service workers and children’, the study said.

Children and poverty in Georgia

The results of the Welfare Mon­i­tor­ing Survey (WMS), conducted from July to August 2017 by UNICEF, suggested that every fifth child in Georgia lives in a household where their basic needs were not met. It said poverty rates were higher in house­holds with children.

‘In 2017, 33% of all house­holds included at least one child. It should be noted that as the number of children in the household increases, poverty rates measured on the relative and general thresh­olds are sig­nif­i­cant­ly higher. For instance, 27.2% and 24.1% of house­holds with one or two children live in relative and general poverty, respec­tive­ly. These figures rise sig­nif­i­cant­ly to almost 39.9% for house­holds with three or more children under the relative poverty line, and to 33.4% for house­holds below the general poverty line’, the study found.

The study also found that:

Six in ten children from poor families have no or insuf­fi­cient access to children’s books.

School atten­dance in mandatory education is 97%; however, every fifth poor child aged 15–18 is no longer in education.

Due to a lack of kinder­gartens, around 14,000 children do not attend preschool services.